Extreme Temple Mount Makeover
by Allison Kaplan Sommer, PJM Editor, Tel Aviv
Just before riots broke out protesting the rebuilding of a ramp to the Mugrabi gate at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, an Israeli Knesset member had an original idea -- web-cam the project.
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On Thursday, MK Yisrael Hasson proposed that live cameras be set up around the controversial construction, and that every move made, every spade dug, would be recorded on camera in real time and broadcast live on the Internet.
He got the idea to video blog the excavations from reality TV - it could be the Big Brother of controversial construction projects. If Israel let the world see what they were doing 24/7, if the work were completely “transparent” and it was crystal clear that it wasn’t going remotely near any Moslem holy site, he reasoned, it could quell the furor being stoked by Islamic radicals around the world.
His idea, which the Israel Antiquities Authority says it is considering, is a sign of Israeli desperation after explaining three points over and over again until they are blue in the face.
1. They are merely trying to renovate a damaged entrance ramp that collapsed in a snowstorm in 2004, they are not building anything new.
2. They are excavating at the construction site because excavation is required by law in a place where any digging can turn up antiquities
3. The site is completely in the Jewish quarter in the Old City, and not a spade will come near the al-Aqsa mosque.
Nice try, but even if every construction worker hired for the excavation were a certified imam, today’s riots on the Mount, and the other protests around Israel and the world would have occurred.
The timing is just too darn convenient — at a time when the Palestinians desperately need a distraction, both internal and external, from the Hamas-Fatah warring that has plagued them over the past months. What a great opportunity to refocus attention where it should be — Israel and its evil doings.
Maybe it’s just not worth it. That’s what Yehuda Litani contended in the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharonot, yesterday, predicting that the construction would “almost certainly spark the third round of bloodshed caused by Israeli initiatives related to the Temple Mount area,” citing bloodshed in 1996 with the opening of the Western Wall tunnel, and following the famous visit by Ariel Sharon to the Temple Mount in 2000. His point - with Hizbollah breathing down the northern border and the Iranian threats, we don’t need this grief right now.
Is he right?
It certainly looks right now like Israel is in a lose-lose situation no matter what happens. If the construction moves forward, more violence is inevitable, as Litani says, and as Defense Minister Amir Peretz now argues.
If the construction stops, it will certainly leave the impression that Israel was indeed up to something underhanded and destructive, as well as giving the radical rabble-rousers the ability to brag that they’ve achieved a victory, supporting not only the justice of their cause, but their means - the violence today and the threats from various groups to commit terrorist acts if it doesn’t stop — caving in to the same intimidation tactics that characterized the protests against Danish cartoons and papal lectures.
Everyone knows that renovations are a big headache, but this is ridiculous.
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9 Comments
spinoneone:So, the obvious solution is to simply “renovate” the top of the Temple Mount and restore it to its antique beauty, or.. You mean that wouldn’t pass muster? Why not? It was the site of the principal Jewish Temple for 1200 years before that Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70CE. Just bulldoze off the appurtenances now there and rebuild. Who could possible object to that??
Feb 9, 2007 - 9:00 am Brian L.:I’m tracking the photographs of this event over at Snapped Shot, if y’all want to check it out..
http://www.snappedshot.com/archives/655-Selective-Outrage-Syndrome,-Day-OF-RAGE!.html
Regards,
Feb 9, 2007 - 9:10 am negentropy:Brian
Can the muslims start telling us which day isn’t a “day of rage”? Seems to be a lot fewer of them.
Feb 9, 2007 - 1:18 pm L:Wouldn’t it be easier just to demolish the mosque and shoot anyone who has a problem with it?
Feb 9, 2007 - 1:27 pm P. Ami:One may lose in many ways. In this case we certainly lose if we allow the irrational ire of the Muslims to force us in ceasing what must be done. The fact is that they illegally built a Mosque into the Temple Mount and nothing has been properly done to destroy that structure is an absurd hypocrisy. The right thing is to hold them to the law of the land and keep putting it in their faces that the law applies to everyone in Israel. Whether they are capable of learning that lesson is another matter. My father recalls that they had well learned that lesson in 1967 and have since forgotten.
As for rebuilding the Temple, that act requires a number of considerations. Besides the laws of the State of Israel, that make the destruction of the Muslim sites illegal, one must consider that David was not allowed to build the Temple in his day for spiritual reasons. Israel is not spiritually prepared to build the Temple. While Israel is a Jewish state it is not unified in living a Jewish life. Instead, Israel is more concerned with being like the other nations of the world. I happen to think this will, if continued, lead to its downfall. We should be proud of our heritage and our ancient way of life. When we are we might then be worthy of the Temple’s reconstruction. If we ever achieved that spiritual status, what the Muslims, leftists, or Hellenists might think will be a trivial consideration.
Feb 9, 2007 - 6:14 pm Yehudit:Excavations at the Temple Mount since 1967, most of them deliberate damage done by the Muslim authorities given control of the Mount, to erase archeological evidence of the Jewish Temple.
Feb 9, 2007 - 6:16 pm Paul M:Israel has much more to lose by caving in now than by going ahead. It will confirm to the world that the Arabs really do own the Temple Mount and have a monopoly of control over what happens there. If that’s the case, what do you think it will it do to Israel and the Palestinians’ respective claims to eastern Jerusalem, and especially the Old City? It will also demonstrate to the Palestinians the power of mass violence within Israel, and you will get more, and worse, of it until the state is forced to confront it violently-in other words, you will bring on the third intifada you think you are avoiding.
It may be too easy for me to speak from far away in the US, but I think the present rioting can be managed with intelligence and restraint. Israel must continue to explain what it is doing, even though it is blue in the face, but it must keep going with this reasonable and necessary work or forfeit the Temple Mount altogether.
The state should show some spine on this issue; it should remember, and remind everyone else, that Israel is the sovereign power in Jerusalem and that although the waqf has control over Muslim interests at the Mount, it has it due to Israeli generosity, by Israel’s revocable consent, and subject to Israeli law. If the waqf and other Islamic authorities continue to stir up violence they should be reminded that they have things to lose. For example, Israel could close the Haram to worshippers, temporarily or until further notice. Or it can do what it should have done long since, and shut down all the massive new construction work for the mosque at Solomon’s Stables. It could also submit a bill to the Knesset requiring the restoration of that site to as near as possible its state before the waqf started tearing into the Mount (whether or not it is to be enforced). Even publicising what the waqf has done there should help to counteract all the anti-Israel propaganda going about now.
Whatever it does, it should do it while explicitly pointing out that not only Muslims but Jews have a vital interest in the Temple Mount, and not only Israel but Muslims have responsibilities to protect the interests of others. The sense that only Islam matters at the Mount must either be ended or surrendered to.
Feb 10, 2007 - 9:08 am Delta:Too many people are giving into these mass,violent “temper tantrums”. From cartoons in newspapers to providing a safe access, almost anything they don’t control causes an outrage. This is Jerusalem, ISRAEL, at least for now. This behavior is yet more proof why a Palestinian state in Israel will lead to more destruction. Why not make a state in Jordan, which holds the majority of the land from former Palestine???
Feb 10, 2007 - 10:30 am Dr. Joseph Levinson:If you will have a live webcam of the construction site, please advise me of the call letters of the site. Thanks
Feb 15, 2007 - 11:38 am